Before returning to Ohio, Professor Schoen recorded a 5-part podcast series for History Hub entitled Abraham Lincoln: The Life and Death of a Statesman. This series traces the events that shaped Lincoln’s life, from his humble beginnings in Kentucky through the twists and turns of a remarkable political career which culminated in his election as 16th President of the United States in 1860. 2015 marks the 150th anniversary of his assassination during the final month of the American Civil War. The anniversary provides an opportunity to examine the life and career of arguably America’s greatest president. To receive the latest episode in the series as it becomes available please subscribe to our mailing list and podcast series.

Episode 2: Lincoln’s Early Life

Brian Schoen

Brian Schoen earned his Ph.D. at the University of Virginia and subsequent to joining Ohio University’s history department in 2006 taught at Georgetown University and California State University, Sacramento. His first book, The Fragile Fabric of Union: Cotton, Federal Politics, and the Global Origins of the Civil War (Hopkins, 2009), examined how the international political economy of cotton and slavery shaped Lower South politics and first-wave secession. It was awarded the 2010 Southern Historical Association’s Bennett H. Wall book prize. He has since authored several chapters and articles on southern, economic, and diplomatic history as well as coedited (with Frank Towers and Diane Barnes) a collection, The Old South’s Modern World’s: Slavery, Region, and Nation in the Age of Progress (Oxford, 2011). Another co-edited collection, Between Sovereignty and Anarchy: The Politics of Violence in the American Revolutionary Era (Virginia) was published in 2015.

Image: Drawing of log cabin in which President of the United States Abraham Lincoln was born, The New Student’s Reference Work, v. 3, 1914, p. 1074. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.